Welcome Rafael Navarro!

A big weekend for the Rapids as they got their first home win (we'll be reviewing that in the next post) and signed Brazilian striker Rafael Navarro on a 12-month loan from Palmeiras with an option to buy.  That option is a reported $4.5 million dollar deal, which would be a record signing for this team (there's a $500K loan fee already agreed to). Navarro will be available as soon as his visa is complete (though even if he had it today he would not be eligible to play Wednesday night since that's a continuation of a game that started before he was signed).

Navarro is 23 years old and got his start at Botafogo in the Brazilian second division where he scored 19 times in 62 appearances and was the 3rd leading scorer in the league the season Botafogo won it.  He was then signed by Palmeiras (same club as Lucas Esteves came to us from on loan) at the end of 2021.  He's only scored twice in 41 league appearances for them but almost all of those were coming off the bench.  He played the last 17 minutes for them in the Club World Cup final against Chelsea and he's scored 8 times in 13 appearances in the Copa Libertadores.

With this signing the Rapids have 3 Designated Players (Navarro, Cabarl, Maxso) for the first time since 2016 when they had Gashi, Doyle, and Howard.  He'll obviously slot right into the starting XI once he's cleared to play.  There's nobody else healthy on the roster that has this track record.  Once Rubio is back then we will likely see both of them starting.  Cabral will either move to the wing or the bench, and Yapi and Lewis will become subs.  This was a big piece of what we needed in this window.  The key will be is if he can show he's worth the $4.5M tag by next July, though the Rapids have a history of agreeing to buy clauses and then renegotiating them so its possible we could bring him in permanently at a lower number.

Also, following on from my rant on Friday night about Mark Ilic's loan details, the Rapids Communication Director had a public response to me on Twitter that its only fair that I link to here, so that you can read both sides of the issue.  I don't think there's any more to say on that subject at this point.